Abstract: Going behind the computer can be a real hassle, so Abit came up with a "multimedia" bay for the Abit MAX AT7 and IT7 series mainboards that brings the most accessed ports up to the front.92% Rating:

Abit recently stunned the world with the release
of their MAX line of motherboards. The MAX line of motherboards are
what they call "legacy free" motherboards which means they have no serial, parallel or PS/2
ports.

Instead, the motherboard uses USB and firewire ports to communicate with
peripherials. As forward thinking as this is, we still need to bend behind the case to get
at the jacks. Going behind the computer can be a real hassle, so Abit came up
with a "multimedia" bay for the Abit MAX AT7 and IT7 series
mainboards that brings the most accessed ports up to the front, in easy grasp of
everyone.

The MediaXP bay fits into a regular 5 1/4" drive slot and has two
USB 2.0 ports, one Firewire, a SPDIF output, a headphone jack, a microphone jack, a
compact flash, memory stick, and secure digital card reader, and as if
that weren't enough already, it even has an infrared port for a remote control. Not bad
eh?

The Abit
MediaXP bay only works with Abit's MAX line of motherboards so if you don't have
one you can forget about all those cool goodies the MediaXP brings to the
table. The reason for this seemingly unfair trade off is pretty simple - the cables
that connect all these ports have to hook up to something, and since the MediaXP doesn't
use any type of PCI card that means only motherboards with the correct headers
will work.

The MediaXP
bay retails for around $70 USD, but if you consider the cost of a few compact
flash media readers alone this isn't out of scale, and it does make life easier
for everyone.

The construction of the
MediaXP is pretty good, the media bay doesn't have a cheap feel, and everything
is labeled very well. It only comes in beige, beige, or glorious beige. It would be
nice if it were also available in black, or possibly some other different shades like silver for
owners of aluminum cases.

Installation
of the drive bay is dead simple; the manual is very detailed and all the
cables are labelled as well as the connectors so there is little chance for
confusion. Installation in Windows was also very simple, compact flash, memory
stick and secure digital cards are all detected as USB Mass Storage devices and
if you're in Windows Explorer you'll see them as Removable Disks.

Probably the coolest feature of the MediaXP drive bay is the remote
control.

The remote control has been highly
integrated into the accompanying WinDVD and WinRip software. Pressing the WinDVD button obviously brings up
WinDVD and once inside you can use the remote as a mouse and bring menu's, turn
up the volume and even eject the DVD! Not all things were rosy
though.

The biggest hiccup with the MediaXP and the remote is that you need to keep the
remotes line of site pretty much directly in front of the case for the IR signals
to be received well enough. Basically though, if you know how to operate a remote, you are doing
good. Additionally, if InterVideo WinCinema Manager is not loaded into the startup menu the remote won't work
either.

Final thoughts on the MediaXP

Abit's
MediaXP bay is a very cool little device and comes packed to the rails with a
lot of features for Atbit MAX series motherboard owners.
It really is a shame that the unit will only work with this one
type of motherboard, and you have to wonder if Abit has indeed considered adding a
PCI card for future versions so it can work with any computer. The current crop of nameless
front panel multi-function bays on the market are no where near as
well done as the MediaXP, so if Abit were to somehow make the MediaXP
compatible with every motherboard there they would have a hit.

The MediaXP is loaded with useable features that
will keep any multimedia user happy. Having front panel USB, IEEE 1394, SPDIF,
headphone and mic jacks are very handy. To make things better, it's also
compatible with today's popular mobile media like compact flash, memory stick,
secure digital cards and the remote control is like icing on the
cake.

Sadly for us, Smart Media flash
memory has been left out of the picture completely. FujiFilm cameras and MP3
players like Samsung's Yepp series both make use of this simple
and compact memory formafactor (my personal fav as far as flash media
goes).

In terms of
usefulness, since my digital camera uses
compact flash I find it much easier just to plug the card into the MediaXP bay
then to attach the USB cable to my camera. The remote control is a cool option
but during testing it didn't work as well as I would have hoped. The
remote really had to be aimed directly at the receiver to work, and occasionally the signal
would just lost.

Abit's
MediaXP is quite useful to IT7 and AT7 motherboard
owners, but with a street price of $70USD it might not fly of the shelves
as if it were priced on the underside of $50. If you're an owner of an
Abit MAX series motherboard and have a lot of multimedia devices that make use
of removable flash memory definitely check out the MediaXP!

Contents of Article: ABIT MediaXP

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